Join us Thursday, March 26 at 2 p.m. Eastern/noon Central/11 a.m. Pacific for a FREE virtual tour of the Gallerie degli Uffizi and other major sites of Renaissance Florence. REGISTER HERE. To help you better ennjoy the webinar, we are including brief bios of the artists discussed. Giotto di Bondone […]
Tag: Sean Forester
From (19th-century) Russia, with Love
by Sean Forester, leader of our September 2019 trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg For many of us, the images we have formed of Russia are rooted in Soviet times: We picture a tyrannical and bureaucratic country full of dreary buildings. Or maybe our images come from Hollywood and its […]
Chekhov Three Ways
[Editor’s note: We warmly welcome back Sean Forester, a longtime seminar leader, to Toronto Pursuits. Sean will serve up a delicious blend of literature, art, and film in his seminar on one of the most important playwrights and short story writers in world literature.] It will come as no surprise […]
Everyday Beauty: A Free Webinar on Japanese Art
We’re excited to announce the first-ever Classical Pursuits webinar! We invite you to join us and Sean Forester on May 26 for a free webinar on Japanese art. Drawing on his experience as an artist, Sean will explore the connections between calligraphy and garden design, Zen and haiku poetry, and […]
Strength in What Remains Behind
A guest post by Sean Forester I hope you enjoy my painting of San Giorgio Maggiore at dawn. Those of you who travelled to Venice with Tom Jones and Ann experienced the calm grandeur of this vista. As I reflect on the scene, I can almost hear Mahler’s Adaggietto from his […]
GUEST BLOG—East Meets West; West Embraces East by Sean Forester
The Japanese prints, so the story goes, had first arrived in Paris in the 1850s as packaging protecting ceramics. The prints attracted the attention of Claude Monet, who hung works from his large collection on his dining room walls at his home in Giverny. Monet was not alone in seeking […]
GUEST BLOG—The Best City in the World to Visit by Sean Forester
Each travel experience is unique, with its own set of rich memories. But what if you had to choose a favourite city? Would you choose the romance of Paris, the grandeur of Rome, the energy of New York? Perhaps your special city is Barcelona or Buenos Aires? In June, Travel […]
GUEST BLOG — Bobbi Speck on Russia’s Golden Age
NOTA BENE: Many of you will know that Sean Forester, classical painter and lover of 19th century Russian art, literature and music, had to cut short his trip due to a death in the family. Sean did get to escort the group through the Tetryakov Gallery in Moscow and lead […]
TRAVEL PURSUITS – Report from Russia, April 2014
A group of 16 travellers accompanied Sean Forester to Russia to travel back in time to its golden age of art, music, and literature. They are discussing Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and have already enjoyed Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. But when one travels with Sean, […]
GUEST POST — Beauty in All Things by Sean Forester
Dear Friends, In the Edo period (1603-1867), Japanese culture achieved a rare level of refinement. This summer in Toronto we will explore how beauty infused nearly every aspect of life, and everything people saw, touched, smelled, and tasted: Zen gardens, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, poetry, calligraphy, woodblock prints, and dress […]